Professor, Department of Linguistics
For more than 20 years, Professor of Linguistics Margaret “Peggy” Speas has worked alongside native speakers and community members to preserve the Navajo language, one of several hundred endangered Native American languages dubbed “national treasures” by The National Alliance to Save Native Languages, an intertribal leadership coalition.
Peggy has co-taught classes with Navajo scholars at the Navajo Language Academy and also has collaborated on projects analyzing Navajo syntax. Additionally, she worked with Evangeline Parsons-Yazzie, a native speaker and professor of Navajo at Northern Arizona University, on an introductory Navajo language textbook. Published in 2008, the book was the first such text by a native speaker, and is used in high schools on and around the Navajo reservation.
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Peggy has co-taught classes with Navajo scholars at the Navajo Language Academy and also has collaborated on projects analyzing Navajo syntax. Additionally, she worked with Evangeline Parsons-Yazzie, a native speaker and professor of Navajo at Northern Arizona University, on an introductory Navajo language textbook. Published in 2008, the book was the first such text by a native speaker, and is used in high schools on and around the Navajo reservation.
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About Peggy Speas
For more than 20 years, Professor of Linguistics Margaret “Peggy” Speas has worked alongside native speakers and community members to preserve the Navajo language, one of several hundred endangered Native American languages dubbed “national treasures” by The National Alliance to Save Native Languages, an intertribal leadership coalition.
Peggy has co-taught classes with Navajo scholars at the Navajo Language Academy and also has collaborated on projects analyzing Navajo syntax. Additionally, she worked with Evangeline Parsons-Yazzie, a native speaker and professor of Navajo at Northern Arizona University, on an introductory Navajo language textbook. Published in 2008, the book was the first such text by a native speaker, and is used in high schools on and around the Navajo reservation.
Peggy has co-taught classes with Navajo scholars at the Navajo Language Academy and also has collaborated on projects analyzing Navajo syntax. Additionally, she worked with Evangeline Parsons-Yazzie, a native speaker and professor of Navajo at Northern Arizona University, on an introductory Navajo language textbook. Published in 2008, the book was the first such text by a native speaker, and is used in high schools on and around the Navajo reservation.
| Present | Professor and Interim Head, Department of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts Amherst | |
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Research Interests
Contact Information
South College 220
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA 01003
Tel:413-545-6835
Fax:413-545-2793